A/N: Hey, I just wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has reviewed. It really keeps me motivated and it's helpful to get feedback that will improve my writing. All the nice things you guys have said makes me want to give you guys a great story. I hope that I live up to that. And thank you in general to everyone that is reading this. I love writing for you guys.

IMPORTANT: scroll to the bottom for trigger warning

Chapter 7: Empty Ghosts, Part 1

Kid walked with Maka up to get her medicine. She said that it was better than having the nurse come and find her, interrupting whatever she was doing to take her meds. Maka claimed that one time she was in the middle of taking a shower when a nurse came and banged on the door ordering her to come out and take her meds.

As they made their way up to the desk Kid tried to discuss the basement incident with her. "Aren't you concerned about what's going on down there?" he asked in a low voice.

Maka sighed. "Yeah, I think there's something sketchy going on down there, but to be honest, Kid, I'm getting out of here soon and I'm busy trying to figure out how I'm going to help Crona. That basement is the least of my worries at the moment."

Kid huffed out a breath in frustration. Didn't she realize whatever was in the basement could affect all of them. If it turned out to be the mistreatment of a patient the whole place could be shut down.

They got to the desk and a little cup was handed through the window. Maka took it but stopped when she looked down into the cup. "This isn't right." She told the nurse.

"Maka Albarn, right?" Nurse Eruka asked.

"Yeah, but these pills aren't right." She insisted.

"Your prescription was changed. This is a different antidepressant."

Maka clenched her fist, crumpling the cup around the pills. "No one talked to me about this." Kid took a step away from the girl knowing not to cross her when she was pissed.

Nurse Eruka shrugged. "I just hand them out."

Maka dumped the pills into her mouth and swallowed them dry. "Fine. I took the damn pills."

They both turned to walk away, well, Maka had prepared to stomp away, but they were stopped when Nurse Eruka spoke again. "Wait, Kid, I have your meds right here."

Kid turned back. His mouth had gone dry and he emphatically shook his head. "No, I'm not taking anything. My father already told you that I'm being treated by therapy only."

"Well, you were prescribed an antidepressant for your OCD." She held out the tiny paper cup, pills rolling around inside.

Kid had told his father that he did not wish to be medicated. Even though his OCD interfered with his life he liked who he was and he was afraid that medication might change him. This was not something that could be a "mix-up". "Did anyone speak to my father about this?" he asked trying to stay calm.

"We do need parental approval for any change in medication."

That meant that his father had approved him being medicated without talking to him first. Kid felt his heart drop into his stomach. Everyone was making decisions for him without his input. Did anyone even see him as a person anymore?

Mechanically Kid took the cup containing the pills and the small cup of water. He swallowed the pills as he was told and walked away with Maka. They were both quiet as they went back to their group of friends.

"Hey, Kid, you okay? You look a little funny." It was Patty today.

"He just got some bad news." Maka said carefully.

Kid attempted to give Patty a half smile but it came out as more of a grimace. "I'll be fine."

"Do you wanna do a puzzle? Puzzles always make me happy!"

Kid agreed, hoping it would take his mind off of his father's betrayal. He sat down across from Patty who was already dumping puzzle pieces on the table. Maka sat with Soul and Blackstar, talking and playing cards. Kid started to sort the pieces by shape and color.

"What are you doing?" Patty asked curiously.

"We need to sort them first." Kid informed her.

Patty giggled. "Why?" She started mixing up the piles that Kid had started to make in her process of trial and error. "Just shove the pieces together and if they don't fit try another!"

Kid started to feel panicked at her disorganized attempt to put the puzzle together. This was doing nothing to make him feel better. "You can't do that!"

"Sure I can."

"No. If you don't sort them first then everything falls apart. If there's no order then nothing works, if nothing works then nothing matters!"

"You're funny!" Patty laughed.

Was this why his dad wanted him medicated? Because he couldn't even complete a puzzle without freaking out.

"Yeah, they're changing up my meds for no reason." Kid turned his attention to Maka. She was informing Soul about earlier. "I was doing just fine and now this."

"Nobody here knows what they're doing." Soul was fuming. Kid was sure that if this was a cartoon steam would be coming out of his ears. "I'm willing to go knock some heads together, if you want."

Maka rolled her eyes but then she said fondly. "Don't be an idiot."

Tsubaki came into the room and announced. "Group A, it's time for your group activity."

Blackstar leapt to his feet and ran over to her with a grin on his face. "What are we doing today?"

Tsubaki laughed, amused at his excitement. "We're working with clay today."

Kid used the clay to make eight perfectly round spheres. He was lining them up attempting a perfectly straight line. When he got it just right he couldn't help the wide smile that spread across his face at his success. "Patty, look." He said wanting to show off a little.

Patty grinned at how proud he was but her smile faltered a bit. "Why do you sound weird?"

"What are you talking about?"

"That."

Kid paused for a moment. She was right he could hear the slight slurring in his speech. He cleared his throat, and swallowed hard. "It's nothing." There it was gone now.

There was a clatter behind him and he turned to see that Maka had knocked a cup of pencils that had been used to etch designs into the clay onto the floor. "Dammit." She muttered as she started to gather them up. Kid frowned when he saw that her fingers were fumbling and her movements were slightly less coordinated than usual.

"Hey, Kid." He turned back and saw Blackstar was pointing at his table. "Nice balls." The younger boy started loudly guffawing at the innuendo he had made. Kid rolled his eyes and smashed the clay back together. Not everyone could appreciate perfection.

It was at dinner that everything started to feel really strange. His speech had started to slur again and his movements became sloppy. He felt like he was in a fog.

Kid stared down at his plate and used his fork to mix the chicken and broccoli together.

"What the hell are you doing?" Blackstar blurted out. The younger boy looked horrified.

"What?" Kid blinked and looked at his plate. Everything was all mixed together and he felt a sense of unease.

"You're mixing your food. Isn't that like sacrilegious to you or something?"

At this point Soul scoffed. "OCD is a disorder not religion."

Kid shook his head. "I didn't realize I was doing it." He quickly remedied this by separating it out like it should be. Yet he didn't get the same satisfaction from it. It felt like he was doing it out of habit.

When he looked up from his plate again he realized something was missing. "Where's Maka?" How had he only just now noticed her absence? He must be really out of it.

Soul tightened his grip on his fork and stabbed at the food on his plate. "She went to bed early. I can't believe these idiots put her on some new medication that's making her worse not better. Her old one was working fine."

Kid felt angry and concerned over this but the feelings were distant and vague, like the memory of an emotion. After that Kid ate the rest of his meal mechanically. It tasted like sawdust in his mouth.

When he went through his evening routine, it was more out of habit than obligation. He didn't feel happy or content when everything was just right. It left him hollow. He combed his hair after his shower, he folded the toilet paper in a perfect triangle, he checked and rechecked everything several times, but it felt meaningless.

He went to bed and he laid in the exact center of the bed. It didn't make feel relaxed or at ease like it usually did. Instead he felt uncomfortable as if rocks had been placed inside his mattress. He rolled over to one side and closed his eyes waiting for the sudden wave of panic that would insist he move back to the center of his bed. It never came.

The next day they upped his dosage and everything got worse. Instead of his feelings and emotions being distant they just disappeared altogether. It was like his whole world turned gray as he moved through a fog.

By day three of the new meds things stopped making sense. His brain was processing everything at a much slower rate and he couldn't keep up with his friends' conversations. From what he could understand Maka wasn't doing much better than he was.

That evening there was a knock on his bedroom door, he ignored it. The door slowly opened a moment later and Tsubaki leaned in. "Sorry, I knocked but you didn't answer and I-"

"It's fine." Kid slurred from where he lay on his bed staring at the ceiling.

"Blackstar asked me to come and get you. Dinner started ten minutes ago."

"Not hungry."

Tsubaki stepped into the room leaving the door open behind her. "Are you okay? You've been acting different."

"New meds."

Tsubaki opened her mouth, but hesitated. She was struggling between speaking and keeping her thoughts to herself. Finally she decided to go ahead. "If you want I can tell a nurse that the medication is having a negative effect on you."

Kid rolled onto his side and curled away from her. "No, my dad wanted this. He- he approved the medication. Can you just go?"

After she left Kid laid there feeling like everything was wrong but he didn't know how to fix it. If this was what his dad wanted then he had no power to change it. He hated feeling so helpless. He missed having the ability to hop on his skateboard and get away when everything was all too much.

Kid woke up to his room being completely submerged in darkness. He must have fallen asleep. It was the middle of night, but what had woken him. Suddenly, a shadow moved against the wall. He was still foggy from his meds and wasn't sure if he had imagined it.

He stared at the wall and waited. His eyelids drooped shut before he could know for sure. Then there was a warm breath on his ear and his eye shot open again. He gripped his blankets in a tight grip and stayed as still as possible. This had to be a dream.

"Stay away from the basement." A voice croaked. "If you go near it again you'll regret it."

Kid could feel his heart beating so hard he thought it would burst out of his chest. His eyes were wide as he glared at the ceiling unable to turn his head and face the owner of the croaking voice. When he heard the door click shut he let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. "Oh, god." He breathed out.

His whole body was trembling as he tried to process what had just happened. Yet his mind was moving at a sluggish pace and he couldn't discern if this was a dream or reality. Kid blinked hard and pinched his arm in an attempt to wake himself up. Nothing seemed real lately.

When he next opened his eyes it was morning.

Kid wondered if he had had a drug induced nightmare. He looked in the mirror and saw the dark circles under his eyes. His hair was unkempt and his skin was deathly pale. He couldn't bring himself to care. He knew the drugs were doing weird things to him. Yeah, it was probably just a nightmare.

At visiting hours Kid sat on the couch with his knees pulled up to his chest and half-heartedly watched people come and go without really acknowledging anything. It had gotten too difficult to even try to process things. Everything was marred by the fog in his brain.

He saw Maka sitting across from her dad. Her dad was trying to talk to her but she was staring right through him. "Maka!" he said loudly trying to get her attention. "What is wrong?"

Soul had just walked into the common area and went over to talk to Maka's father. "She's been like that since they changed up her meds." Soul explained with narrowed eyes.

"What! No one told me about this!" Her dad grabbed a passing nurse and yelled. "What have you done to my daughter?"

It was quite the scene but Kid couldn't seem to grasp what was actually happening. Everything was scrambled in his head. He wandered back to his room and collapsed on his bed. He didn't know how much longer he could take this. Maybe dying would be better than this half-aware state he was in.

He didn't know how long he was laying there before Tsubaki came bursting into the room. She sat down on the bed next to him and shook his shoulder gently but urgently. "Kid, I need to tell you something."

"Yeah." He slurred.

"I heard about what happened with Maka so I asked a nurse to check your records too. It turns out your dad never approved you being medicated. In fact you weren't even officially prescribed anything. Kid, do you understand what I'm saying?"

Kid was sure whatever she was saying was important but it was too much too fast. "What?"

"Kid, you were not supposed to be taking anything." She said simply.

It still wasn't getting through. None of this could be right. Medicine that should be helping him should not be making him feel like this. "I can't. Can you call my dad?" he asked with a whimper.

"It's going to be okay." Tsubaki told him before leaving.

Kid lay there unmoving, wondering when this was finally going to all be over. His limbs were heavy and his head was full of cotton. He had only spent a few days on the meds and he was already forgetting what it was like to feel.


Trigger Warning: Misuse of prescription drugs, people being given drugs without full knowledge or consent.